


Wednesday Morning 8 AM

by marsistrash



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Public Transportation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-28
Updated: 2013-07-28
Packaged: 2017-12-21 14:30:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/901371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marsistrash/pseuds/marsistrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean Valjean takes issue with some things about Metrorail while appreciating others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wednesday Morning 8 AM

Despite its many obvious flaws, (such as the constant lack of Blue Line trains that cause worryingly frequent delays and have made his colleagues—and clearly so many other people—late so many times) the DC-area Metrorail has recently added some helpful innovations to their system—mostly concerning fare cards. Although he’s never been quite involved with the whole eco-friendly movement, Jean Valjean supposes that it is nice that they’re trying to cut down on their paper waste. This has one minor drawback though—instead of being able to purchase paper fare cards whose only cost is the fare itself, all Metrorail customers are more or less forced to purchase plastic SmarTrip cards, which cost five dollars apiece—it can add up. Though they’ve had SmarTrip cards available for a while, they have added one more new innovation that he really can’t think of any cons to—with the number written on a SmarTrip card, it is easily possible to add money to it online, and even to add an automatically replenishing supply of money to it, a huge time saver for someone with a busy commute.

This can save a lot of time at the station, but on the train itself it’s still quite easy to slip off into an almost-trance thanks to the constant humming and gently swaying of the trains as they run. Early morning mid-week exhaustion also contributes to the number of people who fall asleep or just completely zone out on the Metro.

This makes it incredibly easy to pickpocket.

No one ever notices a bland, professional-looking man riding the Metro toward downtown early in the morning; not any more than they would the ugly yellow seats and the scuff marks on the floor. No one notices Jean Valjean, not even when he’s reached into their briefcases, purses, and coat pockets and taken their wallets (once he was able to detach a SmarTrip card from the lanyard on which it hung around someone’s neck as they slept).

He merely removes the cards from their possession, takes a quick snap shot of the card number, and quietly replaces them as unobtrusively as they were stolen in the first place.

And if the next day the amount of money on the card seems to have increased by $50, what can they do about it?

**Author's Note:**

> blue line trains are a nightmare if youre off by like 30 seconds you have to wait 15 minutes ugh  
> title taken kind of from simon & garfunkel, wednesday morning 3 am


End file.
